We’re having a major heatwave here in Sweden, so bad that even Pokemon Go are alerting me about it! I’ve heard it’s been the same a little all over the planet. And this reminds me of something that’s been on my mind ever since physics in college when we were discussing energy and how it can’t be created or destroyed, it can only be converted from one form to another. And this made me go around thinking how different things convert energy and it didn’t take too long to realise that so incredibly much of today’s society relies on stuff that converts energy to heat!
I mean, even if we disregard the entire greenhouse effect caused by gases, today’s society relies so much on things that create heat as a bi-product that we really can’t be too surprised when we get heatwaves like this. Nuclear power plants creates so much heat they need gazillion gallons of water to cool it, driving your car creates heat both in your car and the asphalt, using your computer creates heat, running your fridge and freezer creates heat, running the train creates heat, running your air conditioning unit to keep cool creates heat, most of the stuff we use today create heat – even your cellphone! And then there’s the fact that every single person is a walking radiator stuck at 37′ and now there are like 10 billion of us?
So yeah, I remember Trump’s tweet about how that cold day in Manhattan was proof there was no global warming – well this is most definitely proof that it’s a thing 🙂
Me and the wife celebrated 10 years a few months back. And one of the things I had planned was going to see Ed Sheeran in Stockholm since she likes his music and the timing was pretty good. So I made sure to be there when tickets went up for sale last year and got two tickets and last Saturday was the day of the concert. And the result was … we’re too old for this!!
First of all, entry was at 6:30. I made jokes “the guy probably isn’t gonna go on until 9!”. I was wrong – he went up about 8:40 so off by 20 minutes. So spending 2 hours listening to pre-show / opening stuff is “as intended” I guess? And whoever organised the event should have planned a bit better and planned for the roof to be open for the event as it’s July!! The temperature was about 35 degrees in there by the end of the night. And after the concert there was a traffic mayhem to get out of there because they had blocked off most streets which congested everything. So instead of the usual 20 minutes from MoS -> home it took us about 1 1/2 hours.
“Well, what about the show itself”? .. well I’m not a big fan of his, even though I enjoy some of his songs and lyrics. I compared it to going to the movies to see a romantic comedy – It’s wouldn’t be my first choice, but I’ll do it with the wife and I’m bound to get at least some enjoyment out of it! But this show was really different than what I expected. The guy even tried rapping a few times! And no sign of Supermarket Flowers either.
But my biggest issue was the volume. I know, I know, concerts are loud. But this was way well beyond “loud”. I already have tinnitus on my right ear thanks to me underestimating the volume at a Röyksopp / Moby concert back in 2002. So I made sure to buy earplugs before the concert to try to make sure that didn’t happen again. And my ear is still ringing!! I honestly don’t get where the enjoyment is when the music is so loud it hurts my ears even with earplugs !? Yes, you want to feel the bass in your chest but I get that from my home cinema that never gave me a ringing in my ear! It just makes no sense!! Even in between songs when he was talking it was so loud I couldn’t hear what he was saying half the time. And this is completely accepted and expected today!? I really don’t get it!!!
The one good thing I can say is I was impressed that he handled the stage alone in front of 50 000 people superbly and his way of creating musical loops with his pedals was quite funny and unexpected. And I liked it!